That brings up something I asked dad once--what happened to all the abandoned vehicles? His reply was that his maintenance unit abandoned anything they couldn't fix and moved on. That's when the sheep herder moved in, I reckon!

Well, depends from area to area. After the war, my late friend, seen gipsy house with fence made from P-38 Lighning parts. In most cases people dismantle all they can, rest is remained to rust and roten. Military remove supistous objects, which can include explosive, some are brought to melt facility but in most cases drop. Sample- after WW2 British plan to bring back home all airplaners, enemy and own, and melt em into aluminum. But they give up after calculations show that new produced aluminum cost 0,5 BP (per pound if I can remember well) and recicled from ex aitplanes cost 1 BP! So decision was clear- drop in sea or simply trown it in some hole in ground and cover with dozers.

So true,my friend in Hungary discovered a bf 109 upper wing plate ( with marking on ! ) as a roof of a hen house in one village.... One other use of the the parts he also discovered was a hull of Caproni 311, in this case as an coal and tree for winter shack......

I should have been more accurate in my last post. My dad was in front-line maintenance and repair, right behind the combat line. So, his aspect was that they fixed what they could soon after a battle and if it took more work it was left for rear troops to repair or scrap. Often they would swap a turret from a knocked-out tank onto a working hull, making one out of two, so to speak, and left the remains behind as they front line moved forward.

I really enjoy when some part of an airplane or vehicle is found, still in use as a roof or fence or whatever, by local people!